Belong to Thee
by Schingiuire Vristalica
Summary: Zelena taunts her captive, basking in the feel of power over the powerless.


**Disclaimer**: I do not own 'Once Upon a Time' or any characters therein.

**Author's Note**: Thanks to Robin for giving me gas to keep my writing machine going. Thanks to all the Once fans for just being awesome. This may get a second part, but for now it's just stand alone fun.

OoOoO** Part One** OoOoO

Gone. Bae was gone, killed by the curse of his father as so many before him. Rumplestiltskin rested his face in his hands, eyes closed against the pain in his heart. All his life he had fought to change fate, to reshape destiny into what he wanted it to be. It seemed no matter how hard he tried, he could never win. The words of men who held power over his life as a mortal condemned him to die on a battlefield, torn into ribbons by ogres. To escape that fate he had cursed himself to life as a branded coward, unable to walk without crutch. With his son facing the same end years later, Rumple had hoped to defy fate yet again by following the wild stories of a beggar. He sold his soul to the darkness, becoming a demon, the Dark One, and used the power to protect his son from those who would dare seek him harm.

Through that power, Rumplestiltskin had become drunk on the gift, seeing only what else he could gain without realizing how much he was being twisted and reshaped into something unrecognizable by his son. Bae offered him a choice to return to life as a human, to have another chance at a life, a chance Rumple had run from for he could not imagine a life where he was not able to access the dark power he needed to protect himself and his family. It was that mistake that led him to destroying thousands upon thousands of lives over several centuries.

Even once he had his son returned, fate continued to rip him away, determined that he be unhappy. Perhaps that was the true nature of his curse, to forever be unloved and unhappy. It had taken him many lifetimes to realize that happiness did not lie in his power, only suffering. And now Baelfire was gone, his life sucked away to fuel the Dark One once more. Rumplestiltskin had been tricked by Cora, and now Bae had been tricked by her daughter. How cruel fate was to create such a horrible path.

"I can't imagine how you feel," her voice echoed through the basement, shattering the misery of his thoughts. "To lose your son, again, and again, and again." There was a musical tone in her words, taunting him from beyond the bars of his cage.

"What do you want?" the sorcerer's voice growled as he lifted his head, eyes shifting to observe her slowly approaching the wire, fingers playing over the blade of his dagger. Her grin shone in the dim light, chest swelling as if she were feeding off his pain. "Ah," he sighed, returning his gaze to the floor. "Here to bask in your victory then? So eager to know how the other side lives after losing every battle you've entered all your life?"

The bars were pointless. The cage was completely unnecessary. She held his soul, the medium that linked him to all his power where it dwelled in the deepest pits. While it rested within her hands he was chained to her every word, shackled by her will and desires. Oh how those chains weighed heavily upon him. All the show was simply for her own ego. She thrived seeing him locked up like a dog. He could hear her heart beat, feel the shift in the air and smell it within her magic. Even if he could not feel it upon her, he recognized the look within her eyes. The same drunk look had been in his own when he looked at himself in a mirror in his first days as the Dark One. He'd seen it in both Cora and Regina's eyes when he had first taught them. She had him, had his power, and basked in it. She had come to suck in his misery and to envelope herself in the aura of black ooze which marked his power and tainted the basement like the trail of a slug.

"I wonder how long that will of yours will last?" she purred through the wire at him, walking around the outside of his cage, dragging the dagger's tip to click across the metal. "Losing your son, no that hasn't broken you. What will it be?" She paused behind him, snaking her arms through the gaps to encircle his chest and throat, pulling him against the wall.

"Obviously you know nothing about me, or those whom I've come to call my allies," he growled, tensing as she caged him within her grip, hands half raised as if to attack or rip away but finding himself unable. "Or you would know you will never win. You've lost, Zelena. There are too many heroes in this town for a thing like you to survive. I wasn't the only one who loved Bae."

Her musical laugh filled his ears, breath disturbing several locks of hair as they fluttered across his cheek. Rumplestiltskin's body flinched, quivering slightly as she ran the dagger across his chest, pressing the blade's edge against his throat. It wasn't a threat, she was toying with him.

"Like it matters if they know or not. Against your power they have no chance. What can they do against you? Anything they think up will be just an insect in your way. Your savior isn't the hero of this story. This time it's my curse, and my town."

Her hand tensed, putting just a touch more pressure upon the blade. The Dark One hissed as his flesh parted, head snapping back against the wire. Liquid fire enveloped the wound, a burning pain slithering in a pattern of shattered glass across his nerves. Laughing, Zelena removed her free hand, instead reaching to grab a fistful of his hair, keeping his throat bared to the blade.

He could feel warmth slithering across skin, pooling within the hollow of his throat. He knew what it would look like, that blood which oozed from his body. The Dark One's blood was not red, but black as the deepest shadow. It would drip in great globs and behave more like hot tar than blood. Even in this world in which he was more human than demon, as long as there was enough magic for his body to connect with the Darkness, his shape obeyed certain laws.

"This town belongs to me. Just like you," she hissed maliciously into his ear.

He grit his teeth, eyes forced to glare with every fiber of his hate filled soul at the roof of his cage. "For how long, dearie?" he growled in return. "That dagger is a very finite thing. Once another's hand closes around it, I'm going to rip out your heart, eat it, and feed your soul to the pit I crawled out of."

"My, that was very specific, you've put quite a bit of thought into this haven't you?" Zelena's musical laugh whispered through the room as she released him, and continued to circle the cage, pausing at the door. "You and I both know you can't do anything against me, though I do find your attempts highly entertaining." Her smile widened as he brushed fingers across the oozing wound at his throat, eyes dropping to observe the black ichor coating his fingers.

The wound would not heal, not on its own as all other wounds would. He would have to give it special attention through the use of magic to close the sheered flesh. That dagger was his link to power as well as his biggest weakness. Anything she did to him, any injury she inflicted upon his form with that blade would bleed, leaking darkness until he was given permission to use his magic and regenerate.

Rumplestiltskin rose to his feet as she stepped into the cage, a wicked smile decorating her face. He couldn't remember if she had focused this much attention on him before, his thoughts had been so jumbled then. However, he certainly understood enough of the situation to know he did not like where this was headed.

"I wonder just how long your will will hold out. Will it be when I kill your little pet project, Regina, or will it be when I have you kill your precious Belle with your own hands?"


End file.
